Thirty-one acres of waterfront land in Palmyra – including wetlands – at the Pennsauken Creek and Palmyra Cove along the banks of the Delaware River will be protected, according to a 2022 state settlement with Fillit and Jersey Recycling Corporation in the township.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette announced a number of protective advancements of public health and the environment on Sept. 29, including the banks of the Delaware River, that continue to threaten New Jersey’s overburdened communities.
Fillit and Jersey Recycling will create a conservation easement of 31.34 acres along Pennsauken Creek; remediate unauthorized solid waste; properly close the landfill; and pay civil penalties amounting to $4 million, according to officials. Past landowners had illegally accepted and stockpiled mulch, painted and treated wood piles of concrete and contaminated soil at the site.
The agreement with Fillit and Jersey Recycling and Sansone Urban Renewal Entity II came in August of 2022. It will also include implementation of green infrastructure best management practices for stormwater. Fillit also paid a civil penalty of $450,000, plus $12,000 for an outstanding penalty.
The DEP also secured a $3.5-million judgment against former operators at the township site, Jersey Recycling Services LLC and its owner, Bradley Sirken, subjects of a 2017 investigation into organized crime’s ties to the solid-waste industry in New Jersey, according to officials.
Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration began an initiative in 2018 to remedy past inequities in environmental law enforcement affecting communities of color, low-income, low English proficiency, and those subject to cumulative environmental stressors. Other protective advancements included:
- A state court order requiring 24 defendants engaged in a statewide illegal waste-dumping scheme in Newark to exit the solid-waste industry, remove waste already deposited and pay $8 million in penalties.
- Another court order directing the shutdown of unsafe wells and the drilling of new ones to provide safe drinking water for migrant workers and their families housed at the Blueberry Bill farm in Hammonton.
- An agreement with British Petroleum to fully remediate harmful soil and groundwater contamination coming from underground gas storage tanks at Monk’s Amoco in Camden, compensate DEP with at least $260,000 and pay up to $100,000 to the city of Camden.
